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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

With this
letter comes my most heartfelt greetings for a Season filled with mystery, awe,
and wonder. As we are drawn, again, into a newer and deeper understanding of
The Mystery of The incarnation may Its reality lead you into a deeper reverence
for the mystery of who you are, who you have been called to be, and Who IS
doing this calling. This call is announced to us through the sacrament, that
is, everyday living. That is why I hope and pray this greeting finds you
celebrating life in the place you are at, in what you are doing, and most
of all in the mystery of your becoming. In this way of living, The Mystery of
The Incarnation is ever new. In the newness of your living, God becomes ever
new. So through the words, work, and wonder of your life may the gifts of
peace, joy and love come to a world that is aching for those gifts. These gifts
can and do become real through the reality of our Incarnational living.

This is the
reason why we are in the midst of a season that is filled with a sense of
preparation and expectation. We are making ready of gifts and blessings, which
in reality are symbols of The Gift coming to us in each and every sacramental
moment we are given to celebrate. Some gifts are recognized right away. For other
gifts, time is required for us to come to and understanding and the
acceptance of their hidden giftedness. “By reason of creation, and still more
by reason of The Incarnation, there is nothing profane for her/him who knows
how to see” (Chardin).So we are given
the Season of Advent to awaken anew our sense of the sacredness of all of
creation. The Season of Advent is just a stepping stone to the main event. The
main event we are being directed toward is The Feast of The Epiphany. Pope
Francis is an epiphany man. He is asking us to leave behind our narrow focus so
we can embrace and be embraced by that which is so great it is The Infinite.
The message of The Epiphany, is God has come for all people, not those whom we
think are the favored few. That is why when we stop at Christmas we never get
to the essence of the message. We are so much the poorer, and as a consequence
all of creation suffers. Sad to say I did not have that understanding leaving
the seminary, or in my early years of ministry. Over the years there has been
an evolution. This has come from a deepening of faith, which comes to one
through the mystery of suffering. I now believe what St. Augustine said so many years ago, “Faith
leads to understanding,” not understanding leads to faith. That journey of
faith is like driving along that awe-full Oregon coast line. I love to drive from
Brookings to MyersBeach. The views are breathtaking,
but not always, some days you have coastal fog. Then you will drive from one
fog bank to another, and then to another. In between there can be bright
sunshine. As you drive in the sunshine you think you are free of the fog, when
almost immediately here comes another fog bank. That sums up the faith journey
in a nut shell. There is no certainty, only the uncertainty of the dark night
which leads to constant change. The older I get the more I fight change. (One
never wins that battle. There is however a slow surrender.) Yet change is now
the only certainty. It is only through lots, and lots of grace the eyes the
heart, and the door of the soul are opened and an ever new reality is revealed.
This revelation takes place over time. I am not and never have been too
accepting of this slow process. I am Irish, duh!!!. We are not a patient
people. I want everything and I want it yesterday. I have what you may call a
microwave mentality. Even the microwave is not fast enough. It bugs me that I
have to wait 3-4 minutes for my egg beaters to cook in the morning. I am now
more accepting of the word of Metz,
“We are born human and spend our whole life discovering what human means.”

I was forced to journey deeper into what it means to be powerless. This summer
I had five visits to the hospital. Two were to the emergency room. What an
experience. One visit was on a Friday night. I now have an even deeper
appreciation for all those who work in the medical field, and I mean all. No
wonder there are the great promises in Matt 25. I almost lost my voice. It was
down to a whisper. The blessing that has come from that is no more long
sermons. The voice will not hold up. I had a number of health challenges which
kept me grounded until the end of July. For this reason my travels were not as
long as usual. I spent all my time in the High Rockies. It was there I began to
breathe right again, and my voice returned. Not to where it was, but good
enough. I am able to hike in SouthMountain again, and
am building up my endurance. The long hikes are a thing of the past as well.

As I look back I am so very, very grateful for your presence in my life. Some
of the old friends have passed on leaving an emptiness, but feelings of
gratitude bubble up. There are so many that have shown love and acceptance
which has enabled me to embrace a God of love, mercy, and acceptance. Continue
that wonder-full, awe-full ministry. Always remember wherever you are,
there is God, and His Church. So many are no longer coming to church. Then you
bring the church to them. You do not preach, but let your actions be your gospel
for all to see and read. That great saying “Preach the Gospel where ever you
go, and when NECESSARY use words.” Our Pope Francis has spoken volumes not by
what he has said , but, by his actions. What a great model The Holy Spirit has
blessed us with. He sure has rattled a few cages, and has let the captives go
free. Let us never try to re-cage those who have been freed to be who they
really are in God's love. My parting gift, paraphrasing Robbie Burns: “Would
that God the gift to give you, to yourself as God sees you.”

Blessings then for a continuous discovery of the birthing that is ever and
always an essential part of an authentic human life. A life has the divine
perfectly hidden within, and at the same time perfectly reveals Him whose
divinity dwells in the depths of each and every human being. May The Mystery of
The Incarnation vivify your life, so you become more and more the living
sacrament of Him Who came to dwell in us through us and among us. Reverence the
mystery of who you are. In this way you will have life and have it to the
fullest.

Blessings to and on all,

Grandpa Joe

P.S.

You will all be
remembered at the 9:00am and 11:00am Masses on Christmas Day.I will have the privilege of celebrating with
the community of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in
Tempe.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Advent 2014, never before, never again, is coming to us,
here and now, with an eternal newness. A newness that always challenges us
to put on a new set of lenses so we will have the faith and courage to let go
of the certainty and the security of the past. For what purpose? So we can
free ourselves to be lost in The Mystery that is "ever ancient and
ever new." A mystery we are celebrating, anew, this Advent season, but the
question has to be asked are we ready for the newness? There is an eternal
newness to our living God. As we participate in this newness there must be a
newness that is revealed in us and through us, for others. What we are given is
never for ourselves. (St. Paul)This newness is presented in the every ordinary,
yet, ever new moment, we are given to live. It is in the living of each moment
that the living God, of Jesus the Christ comes to us and through us to all of
creation. This is The Great Advent which is forever happening, in the sacrament
of eternal now. The coming, this advent of God which is a moment to moment
reality, is the mystery we spend four weeks reflecting on each and every year.
The purpose of this reflective time is to a deeper our faith in the newness of
our God. Because of the newness of our God there must be a newness within each
one of us, since in Him/Her "we live and move and have our being."
How exciting, how challenging that reality is??? Are we ready to embrace the
challenge, of leaving behind comfort and certainty so as to journey into the
great unknown of faith?

“We are driven blindly along a path we have never seen or heard of, unable to
venture any other. Divine action never follows the same course; it always
traces out new paths. Those whom it leads NEVER know where they are going; they
will not find the way through or by their own searching. Divine action for ever
opens the way which we are compelled to take." J-P De Caussade. My ego
wants no part of this insecurity and uncertainty. My ego wants the security of
certainty, and when that certainty disappears, which it will; there is serious
fear-filled panic. On the other hand, my spirit wants to fly free into the
unknown. To be blown this way and that way by the breath of The Creative Spirit
of Love. The Holy Spirit is the creative power of our God, creating and
recreating us ever anew. The Creator God is forever molding us and shaping us
into the person we are meant to be, not the person we want, or wish to be. The
Model we are modeled after is coming to dwell among us. He is coming to be
enfleshed within our flesh, which is The Mystery of the Incarnation. Through
this mystery we are provided with a living, and so an ever evolving model to
follow. We cannot enter a newness of life being modeled after some dead
inanimate object. When we make this error we pay a terrible price. Our Eternal,
Living God comes to live among us so as to lead us to live lives way
beyond anything our imagination could ever imagine. Lives that are only possible
through the action of Grace. Grace, we know, is the love of God in action. That
action is always within the reality of the here and now. Once we go outside the
reality of the here and now God cannot reach us. We are not disposing ourselves
for the only encounter that really matters. For that we are responsible, the
gift of free will can be such a blessing, but it also can be such a curse. All
gifts follow the same pattern.

This Spirit, then, blows where It wills, and in the way of its own choosing.
Darn it. This Spirit cannot be programmed to fit our little narrow
agenda. This requires of us a constant state of awareness and alertness to the
battle that, of necessity, will, and does, ensue. It is happening right now in the
depths of who we are. It is a moment to moment struggle which results in the
old passes away, to give way to the birthing of the new. This too, in time,
will lead to a newness which we must make room for. So, in every life is sown
the seeds of death, in every death there is in potency, the reality of new
life. This new life will be nourished into the fullness of life through the
miracle of grace, not by anything we may say or do. I am beginning to
appreciate more and more the words of St. John of The Cross, “We journey to Him
we do not know, a path we do not know.” Our journey, in faith, is then a
journey into the darkness of insecurity, and uncertainty. A journey that
somehow is guided and guarded by a power beyond our understanding and
comprehension. A book, I find both challenging, and unsettling, is 'The
Sacrament of the Present Moment" by Jean-Pierre De Caussade. Writing about
this journey into the darkness of faith he has this to say “Those who find
themselves this way are often afraid, like the prophet, to follow it afraid of
running into danger when walking through that darkness. Have no fear faithful
souls! That is where your path lies, the way along which your God is guiding
you. THERE IS NOTHING SAFER OR SURER THAN THE DARK NIGHT OF FAITH. Following in
any way when faith is so obscure and darkness obliterates everything and the
path can no longer be discerned, for a path cannot be lost which does not
exist. But the soul cries out: "Every moment I seem to be falling down a
precipice. I know I am surrendering myself to God that I can achieve nothing
unless I cease to act on the strength of my own virtue.....I cannot see that it
is guiding me in the right direction, but I cannot prevent myself from
believing that it is"...The state of pure faith is the state of pure
suffering. All is dark, all is pain.... The more pitfalls there are, the more darkness,
danger, mortification, dryness, fear, privation, trouble, anguish, despair, persecution,
suffering, and desolation there is on our way, the more our faith and trust
will be strengthened...We will forget the way and all its twists and turns, we
will forget ourselves and totally surrender to the wisdom, the mercy, and the
power of our guide.

This Guide is coming to us, disguised as a helpless, vulnerable baby. We are on
an endless searching journey. A mysterious journey that will take us beyond
that which is seen into the realm of mystery and the unseen. This Advent
let us look beyond the familiar so as to get in touch with the great unseen.
This unseen is our deepest and most sacred reality. Let us take the familiar
characters of the Gospel story, and see where each makes a dwelling place
within us. As you place the figures of your crib scene, search your inner space
for the place where they are now dwelling. They are patiently waiting, and have
been waiting in your depths, so as to be discovered and become living
realities. In this way you as individual, couples, families, will have the
lived experience of what it means to be, the living continuation of The Mystery
of The Incarnation.